


As Easy as One - Two -

by auroralmelody



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: 'you can't just list off a bunch of phrases and idioms and try to make it symbolic!!!', Ficlet, JUST YOU WATCH ME, Love Confession™, M/M, One-Shot, ao3 you thREW OFF MY GROO VE, more information on a number than you ever cared to know, why do superscripts count as words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 04:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10756419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroralmelody/pseuds/auroralmelody
Summary: Exactly 666 words long, because I felt like it. Could potentially be read as qp/platonic but the intention was romantic. Mostly a lot of symbolism, written when I should have been doing research on literally anything else.





	As Easy as One - Two -

The devil’s number is a multiple of three.

Three times two hundred twenty-two.

Three is a nice number, for starters. It’s prime - the first odd prime, in fact, after two. Two is even. Two sides, two equals; a balance. It takes two to tango, or gavotte, or tangle in a manner of ways.

Three is where things get complicated, sometimes.

It’s a round of a number that goes forever, a number that’s irrational.

It’s the number, in chemistry, of an element of life flammable and explosive, near unstable, one that forms the strongest bonds with elements one could say are its opposite.

Three is the number, in ASCII text, that signals to a computer that _it’s over; the data’s done; go home._

In Morse, three dots is an S, three dashes an O, and together they form SOS, Save Our Ship.

Third time’s the charm, but bad luck comes in threes.

There are three primary colors. Blue, for peace. Red, for passion. Yellow, for happiness, for friendship, betrayal.

In Christianity, there’s the Holy Trinity, and the number of times that the devil tempted Jesus. Thrice Saint Peter denied his faith, and thrice affirmed it. Three gifts.

In Egypt, the iris was a symbol of power, and its three petals represented Faith, Wisdom, and Courage. In Greece the flower was named for the goddess, who was a messenger and also symbolic of rainbows. In retrospect, perhaps the plant could have been used for a Pride symbol too, for this reason (besides the inherent gaiety of Greek society). Regardless, in Christianity, the flower represents Mary’s sorrow for Christ’s Passion, the final journey of his life.1

There’s Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Angels, demons, and humans.

There are also three little words.

Three important little words.

However, it had taken a very long time before Crowley had ever realized the meaning of them. A tiny voice in his head at first; it consumed his thoughts over the years. He’d fought it, but the sinking feeling that it was right persisted, and in the end he gave in. He accepted it. An undemonic thing, to concede at all, but this is a special crime.

Crowley wanted to say those words. When Aziraphale had taken his hand in the final hours of Earth as they knew it, he’d wanted to say them, as one last act of defiance. And maybe Aziraphale had wanted to say them back; after all, he had just talked back to the Voice of God, and what the hell, right?

Aziraphale had. It just took him longer to realize it. He allowed the feeling to grow, and he allowed himself to understand it more, and by the time he’d figured it out it was less of a harsh blow and more of an enlightenment that he’d never felt before, like reaching the peak of a mountain and staring out over the cascade of the unknown.

Now, Crowley walks along with Aziraphale, arm in arm in St. James’ park. It closes at midnight, and the stars struggle valiantly against the light pollution here. The moonlight reflects on the water; the ducks have gone to. . .wherever ducks go to at night; an angel and a demon stop on a bridge. Crowley drums his fingers on the railing and stares out, before remembering that the angel - _his_ angel - deserves to hear what he’s about to say face to face. So, he turns and takes off his glasses, exhaling and fighting to reach eye contact and hold it.

“Angel,” he says, and then hovers over his next words.

“Crowley.”

The demon takes a breath.

“I love you.”

 

1 Well, Life 1 anyway. Lives come in sets of three, haven’t you played a video game? Jesus lost his first, then his second, well, sort of, in ascending to Heaven, similarly to a dead fish to the surface, or something. The Second Coming can be subsequently characterized as Life 3, and perhaps after that, it’s Game Over, Insert Coin. Yes, that’s how it works. Probably.

**Author's Note:**

> Information from 
> 
> http://www.incredibleart.org/lessons/middle/color2.htm  
> http://mysticalnumbers.com/number-3/  
> http://www.planetgast.net/symbols/plants/plants.html  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3
> 
> An egregious use of semicolons, I’m aware.
> 
> Betaed by the lovely [Crystalsoulslayer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalsoulslayer/profile).


End file.
